From Lawyer to Lego Artist

Nathan Sawaya born in july 10, 1973 is a very incredible artist who started as a lawyer and after working for the lego company for a few months he left and opened his own art studio in new york city and became a sensation when it hit the news. Today he has over 1.5 million colored bricks in his New York art studio. His work is obsessively and crafted and is both beautiful and playful. Sawaya’s ability to transform LEGO bricks into something new, is incredible for the simply fact that he can make an ordinary toy used by people from all ages to the status of fine art.

Katsuhiro Otomo, Creator Of The Most Influential Anime Movie Of All Time

Katsuhiro Otomo born on April 14, 1954 in Tome, Japan, is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. He has also directed some live-action films, such as the film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.

Katsuhiro Otomo was born in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture and grew up in Tome-gun. While he was in high school he was fascinated with movies, often taking a three-hour train ride during school holidays just to see them. In 1973 he graduated high school and left Miyagi, heading to Tokyo with the hopes of becoming a manga artist. On October 4, 1973, he published his first work, a manga adaptation of Prosper Merimee's short novel Mateo Falcone, titled A Gun Report. As he became more notorious later on. He started on his most well known "Akira" in manga form which eventually was offered an anime adaptation, he accepted in in the terms of him having creative control as he had experience with anime before. 

His biggest accomplishment has been the film despite not been able to cover the whole 2000 pages of the manga. It’s influence on animation in japan opened doors to more highly budget projects. Originally anime has been well known to cutting production corners with limited motion, such as having only the characters' mouths move while their faces remained static. Akira broke from this trend with detailed scenes, pre-scored dialogue wherein the dialogue is recorded before the film starts production and the movements of the characters' lips are animated to match it a first for an anime production.  As well as super-fluid motion as realized in the film's more than 160,000 animation cels. Unlike even the likes for live-action adaptations, Akira also had the budget to show a fully realized futuristic Tokyo.

The Man Who Brought Us Cinema's Most Recognizable Poster

Roger Kastel, a native of New York is perhaps one of the best illustrators around for creating some of cinemas most iconic posters. First been the iconic cover for the book “Jaws” which was so successful it was also used for when it came out in theaters as well as the posters for “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” and "Doc Savage". He started his career in high school. After serving during the Korean War in the Navy, he returned home and became a professional freelance artist working on many types of jobs like storyboards, mechanicals and layouts. By 1970's and illustrated over 1000 pictures for many publishers, he was already very well recognized and worked for the big publishers. To make things even bigger for him, when he was assigned to do the cover for the novel Jaws, his work was made into such a success that they use it for the poster as well. Making it one of the most iconic images in cinema ever created and even 40 years later, it's still well known. 

Amano, Illustrating Japan's Iconic Heroes and it's Final Fantasy

Yoshitaka Amano (July 28, 1952) is a Japanese artist who has worked as a designer, illustrator and theater and film scenic designer and costume designer. But he more famously known as the artist who designed many anime superheroes like Tekkama, chasshern and Gatchaman (known here as G force or battle of the planets) and the one who designed many of the original final fantasy covers and characters.

Amano was born in Shizuoka, Japan. As a young teenager, he was fascinated with drawing. In 1967, he began working in the animation department of Tatsunoko Productions. His first project was for the Speed Racer anime franchise. He was a character designer for anime shows such as Time Bokan, Gatchaman, Tekkaman, and Honeybee Hutch. Later on he move to design covers for the famous game franchise final fantasy. His work is very unique as it blends classic Japanese art with a very surrealist take on each and every character he creates and puts them in a world where everything feels is from a fantasy world.

The God of Manga

Ozamu Tezuka was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, producer, activist and medical doctor born (who never practiced medicine).  He is the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack. He is known as the godfather of anime and the Japanese equivalent of Walt Disney (who he himself told him he was jealous of astro boy’s success). Born on 1928 in  Toyonaka City, Osaka. When he starting drawing in elementary school, he wanted to draw manga to convince people to care for the world after world war 2. At age 17 he published Diary of Ma-chan and then Shin Takarajima that started the golden age of manga (the equivalent of the golden age of comics that was happening during the time. 

An interesting thing was that Ozamu never left school while working and even managed to get a medical degree in Osaka University which he never really practiced medicine but used his knowledge for his sci-fi stories and specially on his famous Black Jack manga about a doctor who uses impractical methods to cure people (similar to what the tv show house does). 

(P.S: He was the descendant of the famous ninja Hattori Hanzo) 

Hirohiko Araki's Bizzare Adventure

Hirohiko Araki is a manga artist who has become one of the most recognizable and influencial artists in his medium. Born in June 7, 1960 in Sendai, Miyagi. He started working in a few tittles before starting his magnum opus in 1987 “Jojo Bizarre Adventure” a long running manga series that continues even to this day, which has become an iconic series and has affected greatly in Japan's pop culture as well as his career. A title that follows the adventures of members of the Joestar family who deal with supernatural threats during the course of many generations. Something notable about his art style is how impressively it has evolved. Originally his art style was pretty basic for manga standards for his time but as the years went on his worked evolved from a manlier style where everyone had overgrown muscles and made odd poses to a very refine and detailed form which has gained him great notoriety in the world of art. He has had his work exhibited in the Musee du Louvre in france when he was chosen along four other artists to create an original work set in the museum. For his 30 anniversary as an artist he collaborated with Gucci the Italian clothing brand to celebrate its 90 year anniversary and had his work publish on the fashion magazine Spur.

Murakami's Superflat High Art

Takashi Murakami is the artist who created the artstyle “superflat”. His artwork is inspired by the otaku culture which he finds it to be the . Born and raised in Tokyo and from early in his life he wanted to become an animator as he attended to the Tokyo University of Arts but changed to Nihonga, the traidional style of Japanese painting. But he became disappointed in the field’s highly political world and changed to different medium. He took inspiration of the Otaku culture in his own country whose focus on mainly things that were considered "kawaii" or cute in english which he depicted as "A shallow emptiness of Japanese consumer" and developed the style “Superflat” which is the 2-dimensional imagery that has continued since ancient japan to the well known anime and manga of today. One of his iconic symbols is the one of "Mr Dob" which is big bubble head smiling mouse.He is well known to sell “low art” and repackage it as “high art” as his pieces are some of the most desirable in the world.